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^Yeah, I knew a guy from my high school in the 2014 class. He was "socially awkward", meaning sincere, unpretentious, brilliant, and genuinely into learning. I thought he was the most impressive kid in the whole class.

I heard that stereotype too. Numerous times. I know a couple U of C graduates ( I live in Illinois and rather close to the college) and based on my experiences with them, the basis for the statement seems true. It is one of the factors that makes my decision to apply undecided. I am very academically inclined, but I more so like to let loose, have fun and have discussions that are not always academically centered. I'm not sure if I want to risk the next four or so years of my life at a collegewhere I won't be able to connect with a lot of people on a more personal level.

I'm going to jump in and generalize too: all the students I've known from my school who went to Chicago were chill, sporty, and definitely not nerdy. One ran track, the other played football and jazz trombone. Therefore, don't go to Chicago unless you're willing to give up studying and join a sport :P.

One of my friends stayed at University of Chicago for the weekend said that some of the girls in the dorm were going on about how they were going to do something exciting that weekend. So my friend asked what they were doing. Apparently, their "wild weekend" at U of Chicago consisted of them reenacting the Oregon Trail. So yes, I would support the stereotype that U of Chicago students are socially awkward.

There are definitely more awkward people than the “32 flavors of vanilla” – i.e. cookie cutter – students one finds at Stanford or Columbia, but the vibe has declined significantly in the last few years. However, I would argue it is for the better.

The reason the school had so many oddballs before (particularly in the 1980’s and 1990’s) was not because it inherently marketed that image, but rather because it was not as anywhere as selective as most other top research universities (admitting 50-80% of students), and hence let in more disheveled academics who could not pass the smart, well rounded personality litmus test that Ivies (and Chicago today) employ. Consequently, the University got many runts of the litter socially (even if they were otherwise brilliant).

That said, there are now more than enough qualified, normal students applying that such oddities are increasingly weeded out. I am involved in doing admissions interviews, and one thing I hear a lot from older alumni is, “that student would have been a perfect fit when I was there.” But not anymore.

This is, of course, a ridiculous thread. This question gets raised about once a month, and there are thread after thread addressing it, if you care to search. (Searching this forum for "socially awkward" should work.)

I want to comment on the Oregon Trail story, though. While I don't doubt that at some point there might be some UChicago students looking forward to an exciting weekend of re-enacting the Oregon Trail, it seems far more likely that this happened in 2009 when Scav Hunt included a set of Oregon Trail-themed, fairly hilarious team challenges (along with hundreds of other things). Scav Hunt is indeed a wild weekend for those who participate (and sometimes for those who choose to merely observe, or for those who happen to be in the wrong place at the wrong time). If you look at Scav Hunt lists from recent years, you will get a pretty good picture of what a meaningful group of students at Chicago are like -- erudite, creative, cross-disciplinary, a little obsessive, a little nerdy, and very, very funny. And you will also get a pretty good picture of why ANOTHER meaningful group of students at Chicago wishes the Scav Hunt people would fall off the face of the Earth.

There are many, many different types of students at Chicago. There may even be noticeably more "socially awkward" kids than at Yale -- say, 8% of students vs. 5% -- but at both places it usually turns out that a kid like that who gets accepted has an awful lot of something other than charm to offer. What there isn't is one single type of student, at Chicago, or anywhere else for that matter.

This characterization did not fit S1 his GF or other friends I met who recently graduated. They did like things intellectual, but they also knew how to have fun (with the two at times overlapping). On Halloween a large group would travel to UW-Madison, where they reported the UW kids had a hard time keeping up in the fun domain.

Uchicagoalum- the characterization of students at Stanford or Columbia as "cookie-cutter" is amazingly ignorant and incorrect. Stanford especially is known for recruiting minority and lower income students. Furthermore, the Stanford student body contains not only the academic studs (Like UChicago most certainly does too), but also Div. I and olympic athletes, (UofC cannot make that claim). Simply because the students are not socially awkward does not mean they are all boring, soulless carbon copies of eachother. That said, I know a kid or two going to UofC. They are no more awkward than your average person.

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